Edith Cowan University Research Online

ECU Publications Pre. 2011

1982

Writing the South-West language

Wilfrid Douglas

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Douglas, W. (1982). Writing the South-West language. Perth, Australia: Western Australian College of Advances Education. This Book is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/6889 Edith Cowan University

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 A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).

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_.____.n yoka nyoongah l bulmum bibalmun yook yok yawka yoka noonger noongah nyoongah eman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun a yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka n nga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar ~unga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka nyunga nyungar nunga noonger noongah nyoongah 99 pipelman peopleman bibbelman bibbulmum bibalmun 15 yawk yoka yokka york yorker yook yok yawka yoka au ********************************************* WRITING THE SOUTH-WEST LANGUAGE *********************************************

PREPARED AND ILLUSTRATED BY WILFRID H. DOUGLAS

PUBLISHED BY THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF ADVANCED EDUCATION AND WITH FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ABORtGINAL AFFAIRS. THIS BOOKLET FORMS PART OF THE SOUTH WEST ABORIGINAL STUDIES PROJECT. PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 1982. r I

contents

TO THE READER- Foreword by Dr. C.D.Metcalfe 1. INTRODUCTION 2. DRAWING STORIES IN THE SAND 3, NO SHAME 4. EARLY ATTEMPTS AT 'WRITING THE SOUTH-WEST LANGUAGE 5. SPELLING ABORIGINAL WORDS THE ENGLISH WAY - DOESN'T WORK 6,7. USING ROMAN LETTERS FOR WRITING ABORIGINAL WORDS B. WHERE THE SOUNDS OF SPEECH ARE MADE (chart) 9. THE SOUNDS OF THE SOUTH-WEST LANGUAGE (chart) 10. TEES & DEES 11. CHOOSING AN ALPHABET 12, 13. WORD BUILDING 14, 15. 11 THE LINGO" •• WELL KNOWN EXPRESSIONS 16. MORE WORDS - A SHORT DICTIONARY 17,18. BOOKS - a bibliography 19,20. TO THE READER

Wilf Douglas's book will be welcomed, especially by many South-west people. There is a fear that stories, historic­ al incidents and folklore will fade away quickly with the passing on of the small number of old people who still remember and use their language~

However, there is always the problem of writing down words in Nyungar. Even the name 'Nyungar' , as can be seen from the cover of the book, has been written many ways. '3ut it is important that people use the same alphabet if poss­ ible.

Mr. Douglas has suggested ap alphabet which could be used. He has also explained why he has chosen various letters, and here and there he has suggested alternative letters which may be more acceptable to some people~

Already there have been people who have written the South­ west language using different letters. There may be some people who will feel that Mr. Douglas has not chosen the best letters for their language. The opinions of these people must be respected, especially by non-Aboriginal people.

Sometimes it is possible to spell a word more than one way, but obviously it is better if all people try to use the same letters. This book is an attempt to bring about the using of one kind of spelling for the language.

Mr. Douglas would be very interested to hear from anyone, especially Nyungar people, who would like to comment on his book. You may write to him "c/o . The Inter-cultural Studies Centre" at this College.

TOBY METCALFE

THE !10UNT LAWLEY CAMPUS OF THE W. A. COLLEGE OF ADVANCED EDUCATION 2 Bradford Street (or P.O. Box 66) MOUNT LAWLEY, W.A. 6050

I 1 1. I INTRODUCTION:

This book was intended primarily for South-west Aboriginal adults who were asking for help in writing their own language.

For a period, many of the South-west people were ashamed to speak their own language in front of "Wetjalas" (i.e. European Australians). A number of factors have changed this attitude so that, to-day, most of the people have become rightly proud of their old culture and language and many are attempting to salvage what they can of the South-west traditions.

Now that the book has reached its printed form, it seems possible that it will find its way into schools in the South-west and elsewhere. For this reason it may be valuable if a brief word is addressed to teachers.

The alphabet suggested in this book has been based on a thorough scient­ ific analysis of the speech of a large number of speakers of the South­ west language. Australian languages, generally, have very similar sets of speech sounds (phonemes). These phonemic systems are notable for their contrasts between the dental, alveolar and retroflex consonants. These fine contrasts are not found in English and so they are difficult to rep­ resent with the English alphabet. For example, to find ways to represent three "t" sounds, three "n" sounds, three 11 111 sounds and two 11 r 11 sounds it has been necessary to resort to the used of digraphs (double letters). The chart on page 10 illustrates the problem and the suggested solution.

The other problem is with the vowel phonemes /i/ and /u/. The use of "ee" for the former would be possible because it is like the "i" sound in the English words llBchine, bikini ; but in the South-west language this 11 11 phoneme is also pronounced as in the English word bit , There is no dis­ tinction in the mind of the South-west language speaker between the vowels of "beet"' 11 bit" and "bet"' so /i/ has been chosen to stand for the vari­ ants of this phoneme.

11 11 11 In Nyungar, /u/ is pronounced like the u" sound in the English word put , but never as in "but". There are other problems in using 11 oo" for this sound as well as that mentioned on page 13. Consider the different pron­ unciations of 11 oo 11 in such words as "too", "took", "tool" and 11 book".

No matter what arguments are put forward to support one alphabet or an­ other, wars have been fought over alphabets. It is hoped that· those Abor­ iginal people who have been educated to read and write in English will encourage the use of a consistent alphabet for the writing of the South­ west language. To-day there are hundreds of Aborigines who are able to write to one another and to record in writing their traditional stories and songs in alphabets similar to that adv?cated in this book. With just a few lessons and drills to identify the ,letters with the true speech sounds of Nyungar, a speaker of the language should soon be able to write anything he or she likes in the language.

I thank the Mount Lawley College for helping me to make this book avail­ able to those who have been waiting for it. WILF DOUGLAS

2. ·· ....:o· R .w#: .~: •• lNG RIES ...... 4 • -· ...... ·&·.· ..••. l N .:...... •• .. • .. 6 ... ·~~··.. . ·.. · .. THE:;. • • ...... b • ..... It • ..

THE ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS OF THE SOUTH-WEST OF AUSTRALIA pride themselves on their ability to "tell yarns". Indeed, Aboriginal people, generally, have good reason to be proud of their ability to tell stories.

Although the stories were not written in books, countless stories were stored up in the minds of the people and were passed on to the growing generations. Some.times the stor­ ies were told at bedtime while the family sat close to the camp fire. Sometimes they were passed on in song and dance in the playabout corroborees or more seriously in the sacred ceremonie$.

One of the favorite ways for story-telling was for the narrator to sit on the ground surrounded by his eager list­ eners. As he told the story, he would illustrate it by sticking leaves in the ground to represent people or he would draw marks in the sand. Older girls would often use a long twig to illustrate their "make-up" stories. They would keep the twig moving as they told the story, and with it they would 9raw marks to represent camps, water­ holes and people and also the footprints of human beings and animals.

Some of the sand marks which are still used by the desert people are shown at the bottom of this page. These .marks are not 1vhat we call "writing' in which letters are used to stand for the sounds of speech. But these are symbols for the objects and actions, the people and places, in the story.

Until Europeans came to Australia, the Aboriginal languages did not have alphabets so we may say they were "unwritten" languages. a snake r) ~ 0 ? a hut water­ a per-son hole sitting

3. ,~i!"f'~::;::- _]ffi>i~·c.-~';_1 S \-\AM E/---o~-~- .. -·~~;;; -~1?i~;s~:~;::~::~:__ .~ :. -:-- -: -_ ·~~~=:::~:~~/i;.-i!L ,.... It i{"'~-~t,. io~:thing to be ashamed of if our language has never been written in books. Thousands of languages in the world had not been written until recently. There are still hundreds of languages which do not have alphabets so they remain "unwritten".

To-day, however, many Aboriginal Australians are writing their traditional stories, are writing school books for their children and are writing letters to each other in their own languages - using letters which are found in the English alphabet. Many of these people are also read­ ing books translated into their languages from English and other languages.

On this page is a sample of writing in the Ngaanyatjarra language spoken at Warburton Ranges, W.A., with an English translation alongside it. By comparing the Aboriginal language with the English translation, it will be · seen that sometimes a Ngaanyatjarra word must be translated by two or more English words and also that the word order of the two languages is different. This reminds us that languages not only have their own set of speech sounds, but they also have their own way of making words and senten­ ces and each has its own beauty of expression.

tjitjilu pitjaanu kult­ A child (Qoy) went out hunting urnu wiilyka. Palunyalu and speared a wild cat. H.e gutted tjuni yarlapungu, mantjira it and took it back to camp. On kutipitjangu ngurrakutu. arrival there, he had a drink of Palunyatjanulu kapi tjiki- water, then built up the fire, cook­ l!l nu, pitjangu, kurrkaltjunu ed the cat and ate it. ~'(l\ paarnu, ngalangu. ~ ,,,,1'111 ,,,, (Extract from Douglas 1964). \\ ''~" ~ ~' ((\ \\t~\\11 '''@ ~''" ~~ -: ~ ~ ~' ~'''~"" - ~~,A:~~~ ·. "'~ \fv~\r/ ~~ ~'~~,';\~~~

4. rl tt pts t wri ti the th- st I n uage

THREE NAMES stand out in the history of turopean recording of the Aboriginal languages of Western Australia. In 1842, G. F. Moore and C. Symmons both published books on W. A.lang­ uages, although it is possible they based their work on information they obtained from a certain Francis Armstrong who used to interpret for the Government.

Edward Curr was the third man. In 1886 he wrote a great Work entitled THE AUSTRALIAN RACE. In the fourth volume he included the listed items from a 120-wordlist in 500 lang­ uages and dialects from around the coast of Australia.

We must not forget about the notorious Irish woman who wrote so much about the "Bibbulmun" people of the South­ west and who recorded much ·of their language and culture. Daisy Bates wrote down hundreds of words and phrases and also recorded some of the songs of the South-west people. Remember how she spel t the name of the South-west people - Bibbulmun. Since those days it has been spel t in so many ways, including PIPELMAN PEOPLEMAN, BIBBELMAN, BIBBUL­ MUM, and BIBALMAN.

It is interesting to notice how Edward Curr spelt some of the South-west words. Take the well-known word for 'water', kep. He spelt this kaip, kairp, and keip. You can see that Curr and others of his time were try­ ing to spell Nyungar words with English letters so that their readers would pronounce the words as close as poss­ ible to the way the people pronounced the words. Notice how Curr spelt the Nyungar word for 'woman' in his word­ list: ------YAWK. YOKA. YOKKA. YORK. YORKER. YOOK.

5, THE TROUBLE WITH ENGLISH SPELLING is that the words are not always pronounced as they are spelt. For example, the English word "through" is pronounced like "threw" but it has a different meaning. And how about the letter "u" in English? Notice the different ways it is pronounced in words such as "pure", "put" and "but". When Europeans spel t the place name - Mukinbudin - did they mean it to be pronounced mookinboodin or muckenbudden?

Another problem with spelling Aboriginal words the English way is that the sounds of an Aboriginal language are not always the same as the sounds of English. See the trouble Europeans have had trying to spell the word for 1 man 1 in the South-west language. Here are some tries! nungar, noon gar, yoongar, youngar, nyungar, nyunga, and noongah.

Notice that the first sound is sometimes spel t with a "y", sometimes with an 11 n 11 and also with an "ny". In some dial­ ects of the South-west language, that first sound is made with the tongue between the teeth, although to English ears it still sounds something like "n". (By the way, at the end of words it sounds like 11 -ng" to the ears of native English speakers; for example, the untrained ear hears the Nyungar word for 'walking' as *kurling instead of kurliny.) In other dialects of the South-west, this 11 ny 11 sound is more like the "n" in the English word "new". with the tongue touching the back of the teeth. There is really no English letter for this sound. This is why so many Abor­ igines are now using 11 ny" to stand for it.

If we use nny", then we need to explain that it is only a symbol for the dental nasal sound (that is, an 11 n 11 sound with the tongue touching the teeth) and it should never be read as the 11 -ny" in the English words "many" and "tiny" or like the "ny- 11 in "nylon". Nyungar words which hpve this sound are (among many others) - nyungar 'man', nyitiny 'cold', nyininy 'sitting', nyong

1 winyarn 'You poor old thing, I'm sorry for you. , and nyurlam 'the devil bird'. 6. tap

tab

There are still other problems when we spell Aboriginal words the English way. In English, for example, it is important to notice the difference between the sounds 11 p" and "b". In English we must have different letters for these sounds, although we do not always pronounce them the same way. (Listen to the difference to the sound of "p" in "pay" and then in "tap".) In the South-west dialects there is no distinction made between the sounds of "p" and "b" as there is in the English words "pay" and "bay". "pat" and "bat".

11 11 We could say the same things about the sounds "t" and d , "k" and "g". The English words "Kate" and "Gate" have different meanings, and so do "tied" and "died". But in Nyungar, it would not matter if we spelt the word for fire as karl or garl; or the word for water as kep or~· That is, of course, as long as we pronounce them the Nyungar way and not the English way.

7. I s

The letters of the English alphabet come from the old Roman alphabet which is used in the writing of French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Croatian, and many other languages in other parts of the world. Why not use letters from the same alphabet to write the South-west language? Instead of speHing "the English way", though, let us choose one letter, or one set of let­ ters, to stand for each speech sound in the South-west language. If we do this, we must remember not to pronounce the words the English way; but recognize that the letters stand for the Nyungar sounds and so we will say the words in the true Nyungar way.

But firstly we must discover the speech sounds which make a difference in meaning in the South-west language. Looking at the chart on the next page we will learn where speech sounds are made by the human voice organs, and then we will plot in the postions and ways in which the Nyungar sounds are made. After that we can start making decisions about what letters to use for writing the language.

I!l the sketch below is a well-known Nyungar expression. We could attempt to write this the English way as follows: ahlee-wah! malkar moortich yoowarl goorlin. 'Hey, look! The clever doctor is coming. 1

8. g EE ADE

palssa.qe beh. i nd the nose

top Up tongue (it can move about freely in ) l:he mouth) aslream ol a.i}-1 may pass thru' t'he ·mouth. orlhe nose or lh'l"ou9k both at rJnce this lz'd shuts over the win when you

9. the sounds of the south-west language

~-.;,,.,,,~ ...····:····~":!·.··::·.f._~(u,;;..~: _~ DIAGRAM OF : -· .-.. - ..® ~:::.·:·;...... :-{ ...... ~l •~~...... ·=· :· THE MOUTJ/ llps·~··', , ·:·::.. :.:':·.\' • • ·.p:.... : ·;,:~ showing move- ..t G) ~:·:.:;·y \ .' toi'J;9tA.e • • •••• I ment of the ... . \... •. I.'. : · .. ~· .. .~"\ : . <··l-!:':!·. :·:.<·.·:--.~.. --. ::.· .~.:: .··:-:-·. I ton guo and h ps . , ::·;.,-:;:; .. ,.,,,c...... ::.\ ;.::: ... -::.;.,:. :;':. ·. ::·;, ~ ( ·. ':: .. ·:.:·.:::.::.. ·.·::: ..·;~.=:; !(: ;.;:~.~·:: ::::.:. =.~ :; :":::.~:-.::.:.~:.::: \~.. ~·.. ~:. ·.: .. J..I/(3/JU. t>cNTIIL ALI/E()J.IIR. I<.EmOFLcX 1/ELI.JR. AIR STREAM

ESCAPES OVER THE SIDES OF I rl THE TONGUE ly

PASSES OVER CENTRE OF rr r THE TONGUE

PASSES FREE- LY THROUGH w y THE MOUTH . VOWELS I e a 0 u

STUDY THIS CHART FOR A WHILE, THEN TURN THE PAGE AND READ ON.

10, T s

NOW THAT YOU HAVE STUDIED THE CHART on the previous page, you will have noticed that there are some sounds in the South-west language which native English speakers would find difficult to hear and even to pronounce. For example, there are three sounds which are something like the English "t" or "d": Because there is only one "tee" in English, we will have to invent some way to write the three "tees" of Nyungar (or are they three "dees"?).

For the dental sound (the one in which the tongue touches the teeth), we can use "tj" (as they do in the Desert) or else "dj". It is the sound at the end of manatj 'black cockatoo'/'policeman', and at the beginning of tja 'mouth'.

For the "tee" sound which is the closest to the English "t", we can use the regular "t" or "d". And for the "tee" with the tongue turned back, we can use "rt" or "rd". In some Australian languages the latter sound is written "t" or "d" (underlined). This marks the letter as standing for a single sound, but learners sometimes forget to put in the little line, so teachers have suggested using "rt" instead because the tongue turns back for "r" anyway. Remember, though, that where two letters are used like this, they stand for ONE sound only.

We have learned already that it is very important to make a difference between "t" and "d" in English and that this difference is not important in the South-west language. Another point to notice is that ~he English "t" sometimes has a puff of air following it - especially when it comes at the beginning of words. Hold a piece of paper in front of an English speaker's mouth when he is saying the word "tucker" (or "tea" or "Tammin") and notice the paper blow away from his mouth at the beginning of the word. There are no South-west words which start like this or have these so-called "aspirated sounds" in them. The same applies to the sounds "p" and "k" in Nyungar - they are never asp­ irated.

11. SOME MODERN NY UNGAR (or NYOONGAR) people who have learned only to read and write in English are not happy about writ­ ing Nyungar words with pees, tees and kays (that is, with p, t, k) , yet, when they come to write down Nyungar words they find that sometimes they don 1 t feel it is right to spell the words with bees, dees and gees (b,d,g).

11 11 11 11 11 11 The trouble is that the English b , d and g sometimes have a rumble in them - that is, the vocal cords in the voice box are vibrating when these sounds are made. Notice how they 11 hum 11 in words like garbage, daddy and goggle. That is why Edward CurT wrote the word for 1 water 1 in a W. A. language as gabi, capi, gabby, gabbee, kabbee, and gabbie. English speakers are often uncertain as to whether 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 the Nyungar sound is t or d , p or b , k or g •

In reality, the correct pronunciation of the Nyungar sounds is hidden away in some English words such as: SE.ate stake skate. Hold the piece of paper up again and notice that it does not blow away when an English speaker says . these words. 11 11 11 11 11 If we remember this, we can use p , t and 11 k to write Nyungar and still pronounce the words like the real old­ timers.

12. l I I

aw

MANY AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES HAVE ONLY THREE VOWEL SOUNDS "a", "i" and "u" (pronounced ah, ee, and oo); but the South­ west languages has five vowels now. English has five let­ ters standing for the vowels; but they have many different pronunciations.

In Nyungar, the "u" letter stands for a sound which is very much like the "u" sound in the English word "put", but not~ carefully, it is never pronounced as the "u" sound in the English word "but". Some people prefer to use "oo" for this sound. Why not? As long as it is used consistent­ ly. But "oo" is the English way. Aborigines are using "u" for the 11 oo 11 sound in many other Australian languages.

The Nyungar letter "a" stands for a sound very much like the "a" sound in "bath", but is not like the "a" sound in cat. The "e" letter stands for the "e'' .sound in bet, but is never pronounced like the "e" in me or in ~· -.-

The letter 11 i 11 in Nyungar stands for the 11 i 11 sound as in the English words radio, machine, and bikini, but it is never pronounced as in English mild or I. The final vowel is 11 o 11 and this is pronounced something like the "aw" in law. Notice that some South~west people pronounce the English word £.Qg_ as "dawg". The Nyungai sound 11 o 11 is not like the 11 o11 in the English word hot.

Practise the vowel sounds in these syllables: pa pe pi po pu ma me mi mo mu ta te ti to tu na ne ni no nu ka ·ke ki ko ku nga nge ngi ngo ngu tja tje tji tjo tju nya nye nyi nyo nyu la le li lo lu ra re ri ro ru wa we wi WO wu ya ye yi yo yu 13 BUILDIN

AN ALPHABET WE CAN USE: There are 22 sounds in the South-west language. In some cases we have used double letters to stand for one sound. Here are the consonants: p, tj, t, rt, k, m, ny, n, rn, ng, ly, 1, rl, rr, r, w, and y •. And here are the five vowels again: a, e, i, o, u. HOW WORDS ARE BUILT FROM THE SOUNDS OF THESE LETTERS All of the syllables on the previous page are made up of two sounds each - a consonant followed by a vowel. Many of these are meaningless syllables, simply arranged for practice only. There are only a few words in Nyungar which are made up of two sounds only - a CONSONANT plus a VOWEL. In such words, the vowel is always pronounced longer. In the example boxes below, C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. c v tj a tja 'mouth', 'speech' tj i tji 'a moment', 'Wait. 1 m 0 mo 'three/four', 'a few' 1 1 n i ni 'Hi! , 'Here you are. w a wa , 1 What? 1 , 1 Where? 1 •

Now here is a list of 3-sound words made up of CONSONANT­ VOWEL-CONSONANT (CVC). But don't forget that sometimes a single sound is represented by a double-letter. c v c k a t kat 'head' 1 1 1 k e p kep water' ( wine ) k u 1 kul 'louse' m a 1 mal 'dunnart' m a fTi man 'father' m a r mar 'hand' (tongue turned back for 'r m a rr marr 'cloud' (tongue straight for 1 rr. k a rl karl 'fire' k i ny kiny 'nothing', 'nobody' lI Here are a few more words with three sounds in each: kirr 'smoke' nyong 'sorry' I kotj 'stone axe' ngop 'blood' kurt 'heart' ngot 'horse' murn 'black' tjen 'foot'.

Now we have a list of four-sound words - CONSONANT-VOWEL­ CONSONANT-CONSONANT: c v c c

k 0 n t kant 'camping place' k 0 ng k kongk 'uncle' k u m p kump 'urine' m a ng k mangk 'tea leaf' n i rn t nirnt 'tail bone' ng a rn t ngarnt or ngurnt 'chest' ng u n t ngunt 'elder brother' p i rn t pirnt 'skewer', 'button', 'pin', etc. t a rn t tarnt 'ankle' w a ng k wangk 'talk' w 0 rn t wornt 'white gum' y u m p yump 'death magic (revenge)'.

There are a few words which begin with a consonant plus 11 11 "w". The first consonant may be p , "t" or "k". kwan (kwun in some dialects) 'dung', 'backside' kwernt 'bandicoot' kwer (or kwur) 'brush-tailed wallaby' kwetj 'bone' kwop(or kwup) 'good' pwok 'fur skin', 'cloak', 'coat' twangk 'ear' twert (or twurt) 'dog'.

There are many combinations of these basic syllable and word types. One of the important sets of words is the set of ACTION WORDS. When the action is continuing, these words end with the suffix -iny as follows: paminy 'hitting' peniny 'scratching' pakiny 'touching' wariny 'hanging (something)' kawiny 'laughing' nariny 'burning' weliny 'crying' yakiny 'standing' pal katitjiny 'listening' ~~~~~~~~~~L_ tjinanginy 'seeing' tukurniny 'putting' yanginy 'giving'.

15 what some South-west people old Nyungar language. Practise reading these well-known ex­ pressions in the old language. ' palap nukert ngurntiny. 'They are lying sleeping.' ngarl wort kurliny. 'We are going away.' manatj kutjal yuwarl kurliny. 'There are two policemen coming." karla kurl. 'Go back to camp.' (lit. 'to your fire') nyunak karl kurl. 'You go back to camp.' wort tjinang. 'Look in that direction. ' aliny wort tjinang. 'Look at that person (distant). 1 yokil mam paminy. 'The woman is hitting the man.' mam yokiny paminy. 'The man (father) is hitting the woman.' ngetj yongka tjinang. 'I saw a kangaroo. ' manatjil nyungar palany paranginy. 1 The policeman is arrest­ that man.' kunyat pal kulyumi tj nukert ngurntiny. 'That child is pre- , tending to be asleep.' f@l kwopitak. 'She's pretty. 1 nyitiny kwiyar mukiny. 'It's as cold as a frog.' pal tjurrup-tjurrup. 'He's happy/ He's in love.' ngetj kopurl wirt. ' I'm hungry. ' E§! kat wara twangk purt. 'He's silly in the head and he's quite unreasonable.' ngetj kat mentitj. 'I 1 ve got a headache. ' nyunak narnak kwetj. 'You look very skinny. 1

,f@l wetjala wangkiny. 'He's talking English.'

IF YOU COULD READ ALL OF THESE SENTENCES YOU CAN REALLY READ NYUNGAR AND SPEAK IT

16 ------:------~--~~~-~------·

1l.A..-0i o/- ail, Mme. AC7 ION wo~d-0 (o~ -0hail w~ call them V[J{BS) and ~n -0ome. NOLLNS. 7M Nyung~ wo~d-0 ~ in -0 ~ipt w~iting in ca-0~ ********************** you p~~ w~iting to p~inting. katitjiny listening kawiny laughing ku~jiny throwing ku~y going/coming ngan.m.y eating/~rinking kuniny defecating pl.A..niny squeezing kumpiny urinating po~niny cutting m)_f_jafiny raining pam.m.y hitting ny.m..m.y sitting p~iny scratching na~.m.y burning paki.ny touching ng~iny lying down p~ang.m.y getting 'tju~upiny being happy ijinanginy seeing ta~piny entering tuk~y putting tanianginy climbing w~.m.y hanging up iapaf~iny falling w~anginy cooking w~~y coming down Luanianginy killing w~finy crying wangkiny telling wap.m.y playing w~niny making w~y~.m.y being afraid w~tiny hunting yakufiny running yuiininy tying yaki.ny standing yang.m.y giving ************************************************************ k~/k~fa fire nop little cild kat head nu~ul<.. egg kilj spear ngangk sun/mother kongk uncle ngangk~ thumb kop~ stomach ngam~ rock hole kotj axe ngam~i tobacco kunyai child ngo~fak teeth k.ud heart/sweetheart ngoi horse kwiy~ frog ng~a black cockatoo manaij policeman ngun brother mangk tea leaf ngup blood m~~ cloud pafyat ghost m~ hand p-<..p breast m~t leg poy/poya rock/money may house punitj knee ~y veg.food p~ tree/wood m)_y~l_ eyes puij~ ground mufy nose taij meat n~rwJ.c neck tj~finy tongue nyungak man, person tw~t dog

17 HERE ARE A FEW MORE NOUNS AT THE END OF THE ALPHABET: wan digging stick y.et chin wwdang crow yongka kangaroo wdj emu yok woman w.etjafa white man yump death magic/fetish W0/1.f sky !JU/I_fl_ bob-tailed lizard W0/1.i throat yud white ashes AND A FEW DESCRIPTIVES:

IDVop good I well manti youthful IDVopitak pretty I best m.entilj sick I weak ka/1.ang angry mu/1.tilj strong ka/1.fang hot mu/1.a/1.t full ku~any bashful I shy nyiliny cold kumpa/1. big p-<..yu awake mafkakum wild Wa/1.a bad wVd_ empty IT HELPS IN LEARNING TO READ AND TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE IF WORDS ARE LEARNED IN SENTENCE FRAMES ~ liKE THIS: yongka kurliny. There is a kangaroo kangaroo coming coming/ going yongka kutjal kurliny. There are two kanga­ kangaroo two coming roos coming. manatj kutjal yuwarl kurliny. There are two police­ police two this-way coming men coming this way. manatj kutjal wort kurliny. Two policemen going police two away going away. ngany(or ngetj) wort kurliny. I am going away. I ( rl away going pal wort kurliny. He is going away. he, she, it away going pal wort kurliny penan~ He/she is going away he,she,it away going tomorrow tomorrow. nyintak wort kurliny penang? Are you going away you (sg.) away going tomorrow? tomorrow? kayar, ngany wort kurliny penang. Yes, I am going away yes, I away going tomorrow. tomorrow. pal wort kurl kura. He went away a long he away went before time ago.

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R1ferences and some books about the South-west people, language and culture.

Bates, Daisy M. 1914 A few notes en some South-west Australfan dialects. Royal Anthropological Institute, London. Bates, Daisy M. 1938 The Passing of the Aborigines. John Murray, London. Battye Library. Native Vocabularies 12/12a 'South-west' & 'Miscellaneous volumes. Bennell, Eddie and Thomas, Anne. 1982 Aboriginal Legends from the Bibulmun Tribe. Rigby, Perth. Berndt, R. M. & Berndt, C. H. ( Eds. ) 1980 Aborigines of the West - Their Past and their Present (Revised). University of Western Australia Press, Perth. (Contains articles on the South­ west by J.Davis, R.M.Berndt, r~.C.Howard, K.Colbung.) Buller, Murphy D. [ 1958] An Attempt to Eat the Moon - and other stories recounted from the Aborigines. Georgian House, Melbourne. Bussell, J.C. 1933 Report of an excursion to the northward from Augusta, IN Cross, J.(Ed) Journals of several expeditions: 17B- 185. Bussell, J.C. 1833 Mr. Bussell's journal of an expedition to the River Vasse from the Blackwood. IN Cross, J.(Ed) as above,186- 203. Calvert, A.F. 1894 The Aborigines of Western Australia. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., London. Curr, E.M. 1886-1887 The Australian Race. Govt.Printer, Melbourne. Dowglas, W.H. 1964 An Introduction to the Western Desert Language (Re­ vised) Oceania Linguistic Monographs No.4. University of Sydney, Sydney. Douglas, W.H. 196B(Revised 1976) The Aboriginal Languages of the South­ west of Australia. A.A.S.14, Linguistic Series 4. Austral­ ian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. Douglas, W. H. 1973 The Language of South-western Australia, IN The Jour­ of the Royal Society of Western Australia, Vol.56 Parts 1 & 2, pp.48-5D. Glooert, L. 1950 Provisional List of Aboriginal Place Names. IN Western Australian Historical Society Journal of Proceedings, Vol.4, pt.2, 83-86. Green, N. (Ed) 1979 Nyungar - The People: Aboriginal Customs in the South­ west of Australia. Creative Research, Perth. Grey, Sir G. 1841 Journals of two expeditions of discovery in North-west and Western Australia during the years 1837,38,39. T.& W. Boone, London. (2 Volumes) Hae~ich, A. & Tilbrook, L. 1981 South-West Aboriginal Studies Bibliography. Mount Lawley College. Perth. Hallam, Sylvia J. 1957 Fire and Hearth, a study of Aboriginal usage and European Usurpation in South-western Australia. A.A. S. 58, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. Hammond, J. E. [ 1933] Win jan 1 s People: The Story of the South-west Aust­ ralian Aborigines. Edited by Paul Hasluck. Imperial Print­ ing Co., Perth. Hasluck, Sir P.M.C, 1942 Black Australians: A Survey of Native Policy in Western Australia, 1829-1897. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. 19 ()U Hassell, E. 1936 Notes o.n the Ethnology of the Wheelman tribe of South­ western Australia, selected and edited by D.S.Davidson, Anthropos, vol.31, 679-711. IYJoore, G.F. 1884 A Descriptive Vocabulary of the language in common use amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia; with copious meanings, embodying much information regarding the habits, manners and customs of the natives, and the natural hist­ ory of the country. William S. Orr & Co. , London. First printed 1842. (Reprinted in 1884 in the same covers as 11 11 his Diary , paginated separately.) Neville, A.D. 1947 Australia's Coloured Minority, Currawong Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. Sydney. 1\find, s. 1831 Description of the natives of King George's Sound (Swan River Colony) and adjoining country. IN Royal Geographical Society Journal, Vol.1, 21-51. Tilbrook, Lois 1977 Moora - Aboriginal Children in a Wheatbelt Town. Mount Lawley College. Perth. Western Australian Museum: 1974 Records of the Western Australian Museum, Vol. 3, Part 1. Wilson, T.8. 1835 Narrative of a Voyage. Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, London.